A couple of weeks ago, Branko took a look at a set featuring an orchid, albeit with a Disney Flavour. Today, he takes a look at another….
It feels like I have just recently written about a LEGO set with orchids, comparing it with the original, gold standard for brick-built orchids, the aptly named 10311 Orchid. And yet here we are, about to embark on building yet another orchid and comparing it against the other LEGO® orchids. After all, why not?
The LEGO Group has generously provided us with this particular rendition called 10343 Mini Orchid. All opinions are our own. This is part of four sets related to ‘The Four Gentlemen’ or ‘The Noble Ones’; four flowers often associated with each other in Asian cultures. The set contains 274 pieces and retails for AU$49.99/£24.99/US$29.99/€29.99.
Join me as we have a look at this light-weight botanical build, and determine how it stacks up in the world of LEGO flowers.
According to the instruction manual, this particular flower is the Peach Phalaenopsis Orchid, representing spring, nobility, friendship, and integrity. I’ll be blunt here: I will view this as a LEGO set foremost. Several life-sized LEGO orchids have been released in recent times, so this mini variant has big shoes to fill.
The build
The small box comes with two paper bags, illustrating this is a relatively simple build. Cracking the first bag shows some very large brown and Nougat pieces (that are new): clearly this will be the vase.
The most striking aspect of all four of these mini botanical builds is the vase/pot they come with. The four sets offer different looks and three slightly different different ways to achieve stud reversal. To be clear, all four of the pots have studs coming out of the ‘wooden’ base and studs coming out of the bottom of the vase so stud (or hole) reversal is needed to connect the vase to the base (now why do those words not rhyme?) .
I am particularly pleased with the stud reversal in this set (same as the Chrysanthemum) ; it is a very compact pattern I have not previously seen in an official LEGO set that achieves reverse studs in only 2 plates thickness!
You can see how this is used to connect the round vase to the ‘wooden’ support.
The main part of the vase is using slopes and curved slopes to create a golden edge, and large curved slopes to finish off the shape of the vase. Note that the method for achieving the golden line, is similar between the different vases but not exactly the same.
The second bag literally contains the greenery. There is a bit of light nougat (new colours) to be seen but green clearly dominates the view. Note the golden hoops that will form the base frame for the flowers.
Botanical sets always make me interested to see what unusual new colours may have been included for existing parts (notice the light nougat shields and green egg. Anyone for green eggs and ham?). But as Richard recently explored, more and more specific flower pieces are starting to appear in LEGO sets so it’s only natural that they also appear here. Finally notice the little golden clips with stud on the other side (6520665). This new part is sure to be popular, but it mildly annoyed me because there is so small to hold on to (my fingers must be too big).
See how the brick-built 40461 Tulips have a decidedly different aesthetic from the new moulded tulip that was introduced recently.
As soon as the vase is finished, we build a few large leaves and a long, thin branch ending in a few flower buds. These buds make it look like the branch is still growing and further flowers are in the making. The tips feel a bit like a cheat, using an actual flower piece (albeit a tulip), but it looks good.
The flowers are next, and they are a little annoying to put together. The leaves are all clipped onto a ring, not really providing the rigid patterns I love from LEGO but rather a more free-form/loose pattern. In addition we have to build five identical flowers!
As soon as the flowers are mounted on the branch (and the leaves that fell off in that process have been returned) the set is complete.
The set looks nice and subtle and there is nothing wrong with it by itself. When we get some other LEGO orchids to put next to it, it suddenly loses a bit of it presence. The original orchid is a much more impressive build, and its flowers just look more organic. The flowers from Isabella’s flower pot have much the same design, but at least the flower-pot itself is a bit smaller so it doesn’t overwhelm the mini orchid.
Annoying
Building this set was not a lot of fun for me, apart from the vase. I noticed that most of the organic connections were very loose in the sense that you clipped things on and it doesn’t matter too much exactly where or at what angle. The nice thing about it is that each flower can end up looking slightly different, but for me it lacked the satisfaction of neat an exact LEGO model. Also several quite small parts needed to be connected, and I am clumsy enough to knock those off, only to have to reconnect them again. It may sound strange but I am quite happy about this. Richard quite correctly said to me “If I liked every set, then the company would be doing something wrong”, so the things that annoy me, probably greatly satisfy others and it is a good thing if LEGO is finding ways to connect to more different people.
Jewellery stand
An often overlooked usage of LEGO botanical builds is as a jewellery stand. Regular flowers don’t tend to appreciate when earrings are dangled from them, but LEGO flowers are not so picky.
In the photos you can see that the original Orchid does a good job at suspending and holding several earrings and even a heavier necklace without trouble. The mini Orchid is a bit smaller and was only able to carry some earrings and they needed to be suspended from the flowers rather than the branches, because the flowers cover most of the branches. Both will do the job though: a neat way to show off jewellery that is waiting to be worn another day.
Beautiful, but so many!
Orchids have become a popular subject for LEGO flowers, as is highlighted in the photo, putting together the orchids from this set, the new 10342 Pretty Pink Flower Bouquet, the original Orchid, and the orchid in 43237 Isabella’s Flowerpot. The first few renditions (in white and purple) were very similar to each other in design, but the latest versions deviate a little from the pattern.
The Peach Phalaenopsis represented in these mini orchids seemed a bit too flat and square to my taste, but it turns out that it is fairly accurate for this type of flower. I prefer the more curved look but at the same time I like a bit of variation. The latest version in dark pink is from the Pretty Pink Flower Bouquet, and it misses the asymmetric nature of orchids a bit; the leaves are too much the same size.
Orchid, or not orchid
I cannot wholeheartedly recommend this set. It has a lot going for it but it is very specific. First; it is not exactly cheap to use for parts, but there are some parts unique to this set (for now). Secondly the flower part build isn’t exactly ‘fun’; the flowers are a bit repetitive and finicky. As I noted above, perhaps my fingers are too big for this set. But, finally, the set is very nice to look at. Especially when you display the set separately or with the other three Gentlemen, it really is an elegant piece. Not quite as nice as the original orchid, but a lot cheaper and a bit more subtle.
So that leaves me to give this set 3 of 5 arbitrary praise units when considering the entertainment it builds as a LEGO set. But I will raise it to 4 praise units for anyone who is mostly looking for a nice display piece, in my case this plant will probably be displayed for much longer than it has taken me to build it, so perhaps that is a more important aspect. I don’t think this set will disappoint but it’s not for everyone.
The 10343 LEGO Botanicals Mini Orchid is available from January 1 2025. It will be priced at $AUD49.99/USD29.99/€29.99/£24.99.
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Until Next Time,
Play Well!